Illness, Murder & Sailor Moon

As we rolled into Fredericton, New Brunswick (I hadn't been there in almost two decades), our jaws dropped with an audible thud on the car floor. It seemed there was not a street that had not been infiltrated by dedicated and passionate fans of Sailor Moon, Death Note or Mega Man....We're there to speak at an Anime Convention.

We might have done some damage to our eyeballs due to lack of moisture. I don't think any of us blinked for the first ten minutes. We found ourselves in a city of a province that isn't known for much other than slow living and a propensity for French speak (sorry New Brunswick, we know you’ve had a tough go).

Over the next two days, we watched in awe as we moved from room to room. The creativity of the convention goers was astonishing. Hours, weeks, perhaps months were put into the costumes that 99.9% of participants wore. We stuck out like a bad case of pink eye, dressed in jeans and t-shirts.

On the first day, we spoke to a roomful of people about turning your passion into a project. It was a great discussion with some, at first, shy attendees. When all was said and done we were bouncing ideas off of each other and handing down Kickstarting Your Project 101. We moseyed over to the bar afterwards where Jeremie ate a plate full of wings with a hot sauce made from the 3rd hottest pepper in the world. It was heartbreaking and incredibly amusing to watch simultaneously.

As the party lovers the three of us are, we went to the local craft beer store and grabbed a couple of growlers. In our hotel room, we drank beer and chatted before heading to the convention centre, beers in hand of course concealed in the convention branded bottles we were given upon arrival. Suspiciously, the bottle, which began as clear plastic, turned blue once liquid was poured in. It’s an all ages convention, but someone had the right idea to give “of age” attendees a way to sneak their booze around. After 10pm, there was a number of 18+ presentations. We peeked through the window of the first room we came to. Unbeknownst to us, it was a Hentai Porn presentation. We sat in a roomful of cosplay anime offcianados as a very strange man, who I believe is still a virgin at the ripe age of 40, told us about the great story lines that Hentai porn movies have as overly curvy anime women were being ravaged by horned demons with larger than life penises. The odd crowd and the creepy presenter made this one of the best moments of our lives. We looked at each other and knew what each of us were thinking: We hit the jackpot.

After the absurdity of the Hentai Porn extravaganza, we went to bed. The next morning we gave what you began listening to when you opened this page. A really amazing and heartwarming conversation about the difficulty we have with talking about tough subjects.

All in all, we had a really great experience. To an outsider looking in, you could have though it was just a bunch of weirdo nerds looking to dress up in funny costumes, but if you took the time to chat with some of these people, you realized they were passionate and creative humans, fitting into a place in society that loves them and appreciates them for what they care about. Thanks Animaritimes, we had a blast.